Engine-starter mechanism



Oct. 25, 1927. E F DORSEY 6,643

ENGINE STARTER MECHANISM Filed Feb. 11. 1926 Hnve nwr Patented Oct. 25, 1927.

UNITED STATES- ,6 PATENT orrica.

FABHUH r. noasax, or aocnns'ran, NEW 1m, assrenoa '10 new: user anacrazc columnar, or, nooaasraa, new Yoax, a coarona'rxon or new Yonx ENGINE-STARTER HEOHAN 15K.

Application filed February 11, 1928. Serial No. 87,664.

This invention relates to mechanism for starting an internal combustion engine, by power derived from an electric motor or other suitable source.

In mechanism for the purpose in question it is common to provide the flywheel of the engine with a ring of gear teeth, and to connect the motor with the engine, at the time of starting, by means of a pimon which is moved axially along a splined shaft drlven by the motor, this axial movement of the pinion bringing its teeth into mesh w th those on the flywheel. To produce the axial movement of the pinion, it is common to provide it with a slotted collar engaged by a forked lever, this lever being plvoted on the wall of a housing which encloses the pinion and its shaft. The lever extends to the exterior of the housing, and is arranged to be operated manually in any convenient manner.

In a construction such as just described, the pinion housing is attached to the flywheel housing of the engine, and has an opening, at its inner end, to perm t engagement of the pinion and the gear ring, wh le the outer part of the housing is necessarily provided with an opening for the reception of the pinion-shifting lever. It is desirable that this last mentioned opening be fitted as closely as possible to the lever, in order to provide against the admission of dlrt to the pinion housing, and thence into the flywheel housing of the engine.

One object of the present invention is to provide a novel form of construction for the shift-lever and the housing, with respectv particularly to the parts adjacent the pivotal support of the lever, by which a close ]o1nt may be maintained at this point, while the construction shall, at the same time, be simple and inexpensive, and the parts easy to assemble or dis-assemble.

Another object of the invention is to provide a simple and inexpensive construction by which the pinion-shifting lever may be given the form characteristic of the present invention.

To the foregoing ends, the invention consists in the construction illustrated in the accompanying drawings and hereinafter described, as it is defined in the annexed claims. i

In the accompanying drawingm, Fig.1 is a side-elevation, partly in vertical section, of engine-starter mechanism embodyin the present invention. Fig. 2 is a deta' -view view, on the line 33 in Fig. 2; and Fig. 4

is a verticaltransverse section of theshifting lever. Y The invention is illustrated as embodied 1n a mechanism in which a'pinion 5 is mounted to slide upon a splined power-shaft 6. This shaft may be rotated by power derived from an e ectric motor 7, and the shaft is journalled, at one end, in a housing 8 which is provided with a flange 9, by which it may be attached to the flywheel housing of an engine in the usual .manner. The housing 8 is rigidly connected with the frame of the motor 7 by an intermediate member or housing 10, which may enclose sultable gears or other means for connecting the shaft 6 with the armature shaft of the motor.

The pinion 5 is provided with an extension or sleeve 11 having a slotted portion for engagement with a pinion-shifting lever 12. I

This lever is forked at its lower end and provided with blocks 13 which enter the slot, so that the sleeve and the pinion may be shifted axially by a rocking movement of the lever. As a feature of the present invention, the housing 8 is rovided with an outward projection 14, an a straight circular opening 15 is bored through the outer end of this projection. The lever 12 is provided with a spherically curved convex portion .16, of a diameter such that it closely fits the bore 15. The lever issu ported by a pivot-pin 17, which passes axia 1y through the spherical ortion 16, and is seated in transverse per orations in the part 14. The

*pivot-pin 17 may be secured in place by a cotter-pin 18 engaging a groove in the pivotpin, as shown in Fig. 2.

The construction just described is such that the pivot-pin 17 constitutes the support and bearing for the lever, and restricts it to rocking movements in one plane. The

spherical portion 16 closely fits the bore 15, so as to exclude foreign matter, and "the particular value of the spherical form is that it permits the bore 15 to be machined inexpensively as a cylindrical opening, and

' lever, the lever may at the'same time to secure a close fit with the lever in all positions a of the latter. Since the spherical part is of greater diameter than any part of the outer am of the be introduced into the bore 15 from the inside, in assembling the To facilitate the manufacture of the lever 12, particularly in the formation of the spherical part, it is pro to make the lever of two ieces of s eet material, each piece stampe into concavo-conveir form so as to rovide a half of the lever, lncludmg one o the lower forked extremities 19, an a half of spherical portion 16. These two half-levers may then be secured togethervln any convenient manner as, for example, by

rivets 20. The lever is shown as provided, near its upper end, with an o ning 21 which may receive the usual r or other means, (not shown), through which it is connected with the pedal by which the startin mechanism is operated.

ile the sheet material construction of the lever is in some ways preferable, it is not essential to the invention in its The invention claimed is:

1. The combination of a housing with an end-o ning and with a straight e lindrical latera bore; a shifting lever aving a forked end of greater iameter than said bore, a single end of less diameter than the bore, and an intermediate s herical part of a diameter to fit the bore 0 osely, the lever, 1

as a whole, being insertable through the open end of the ousing; and a pivot-pin passing transversely through the spherical part of the lever and securing iigfivotally within said bore, with the fork end of the lever within the housing.

2. The combination of claim 1, with the shifter-lever comprising two similar concavo-convex drawn sheet-metal halves, each including one forked extremity of the lever and one half of the single end and the spherical part, said halves of the lever being joined in a plane normal to the pivotal axis.

FARNUM F. DORSEY. 

